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Turkey is looking for a place in the BRICS

30.07.2018

The last summit of the organization in Johannesburg, in addition to the permanent members of the bloc - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - invited leaders of several African countries, Argentina and Turkey. Speaking at the summit, Erdogan asked Turkey to join the alliance and already came up with its new name - BRICST

Why does Turkey need BRICS?

Of course, BRICS is not a military alliance or security organization, like the anti-terrorist structures of the SCO. Although BRICS does not refer to NATO as its geopolitical adversary, it aims to build a multipolar world as opposed to the United States, and hence the North Atlantic alliance. That is, to some extent the connection of the second army in NATO to the anti-American bloc gives grounds for the US to resent.

For Erdogan, membership in the alliance along with Russia and China is a source of additional international legitimacy and recognition. With the same goal, he knocks on the door of the SCO. After the presidential elections, the West increased the pressure on Erdogan, de facto considering him an illegitimate and authoritarian ruler. Simultaneously with the summit in Johannesburg, Donald Trump threatened Turkey with sanctions if she did not release the Protestant preacher Andrew Brunson, whom Ankara attributes to those responsible for the coup attempt in 2016. In addition, the US Congress froze the supply of F-35 fighters in retaliation for the fact that Erdogan did not refuse to purchase Russian S-400 systems.

Another attractive aspect of cooperation for Ankara is financial and economic projects, the potential of which largely depends on the mood of China. Erdogan noted that it is China that is in favor of expanding the bloc. The pool of conditional foreign exchange reserves created in 2014 will help to combat the balance of payments deficit (especially given the current decline in the lira) and resist possible international sanctions. The new BRICS development bank will give impetus to infrastructure and other projects in Turkey.

Will they accept Turkey?

At the last meeting, the leaders of the organization decided to leave cooperation with third countries in the "BRICS plus" format. Anyway, Ankara's desire is a relapse of the same "anti-American disease" that swept Turkey after the putsch in July 2016 and the beginning of US military assistance to the Kurdish separatists in Syria, and ultimately in Turkey itself.

Russia is on the side of Turkey, but China's position is not clear at the same time.